Round 1 - The Battle is Joined

soviets versus Garni  as axis; All options on; Stock scenario, NOT played blind; Soviet password = ^m[cWg^^ Axis password= r2d2

Axis Forces - 1st Pz Div (comprising 2 Pz Reg, Mot Reg, M/C Btn, Recon Btn, MotEng Co) Soviet Forces - 41st TD, 121RR (comprising 2 Tk Reg, Mot Btn, Recon Btn, Mot Arty Btn, Mot Eng Btn, SMG Co, 2 R Btn, 2 AT Co, IG Co) This force mix pits 6xPzIIIGs, 6xPzIIIFs, 3xPzIIID, 3xPzIVE, 6PzIIF, 4xPSW222, 2xPSW221 against 3xBA20, 6xBT7, 15xT26C, 15xT28, 6xT34/40, 4xT35, 6xT40, 2xKV1) Strategic Overview RoEs HTs cannot participate in overruns of armour. HTs can only participate in overruns of non-armour (with an assault strength>0) when accompanied by an equal number of non-HT combat units. HTs may overrun any unit with a 0 assault strength as they wish. HTs may scout and surround. Battlefield There are three main foci of victory point hexes - the hills around Slabada (300VPs), the town of Arikamiai (300VPs), the line to the east of the town (400VPs) and the bonus hex to the east of the hills of Slabada (200VPs). The axis require a gain of 500+VPs to take a victory (i.e. >half the draw spread). Thus, they require only two of the three primary objectives to gain victory. There are no clean lines of communication between the Danieliska and Arikamiai which limits the soviets ability to form a center of gravity, whereas Raseiniai is the perfect center about which the axis can operate towards either of the objective areas. Force Mix At first glance it looks as though the soviets have a substantial material advantage in AFVs. However, it comes at a cost of quality and timing. By and large the soviet AFVs have equivalent offensive firepower, however, they (mostly) suffer greatly from reduced rate of fire and maneuverability. The latter points imply that I will get one shot off for every two of the enemy. Furthermore, much of my force is to arrive later in the game. When coupled with the fact that my best AFVs are not the speediest on the market means that I will be hard pressed to get them into service. There are a couple of bonuses, namely the KV-1s and 10 smoke to use in 20 turns, but the heavy tanks do not arrive until turn 8, by which time the battle may well be decided. If they get here in time, these will, I predict, be very useful. One final thing to bear in mind is that the german pltns are typically SP=5, whereas half the soviet armour is SP= 3. This actually gives the german armour better firepower, but also makes them more brittle. Early war soviet riflemen do not stand up against german motorised infantry (1:6,3,2:4 vs 2:14,11,7,4:6) particularly well, plus I have no equivalent to german mg pltns. The moral of the story here is to stay out of sight as best as possible, and stay in terrain. A final word regarding the axis superweapon - transport halftracks. The axis have seven of these units, fast, armoured and potentially a pain in the rear. We have agreed to limit their freedom of action somewhat - see the RoEs above. Force Distribution 121RR is focused on the SW quadrant, with reinforcements entering from the southern mapedge. 41TD is focused in the east, with reinforcements appearing in the south. The 1PzD has each of its sub-parts split north and south of the road running through Slabada. Strategy It is likely that the axis will keep their deployment as is and proceed along the three natural axes. This is NOT what I would do as axis, I would concentrate most of my force in the north and try to engage the soviet armour as it arrives piecemeal while holding the Slabada VPs and the bonus VPs. That would give me the 500pt swing but more importantly I would have a good shot at inflicting more casualties. Also, it would allow me to attack Arikamiai from two directions and across the marsh/forest line in a game where I was looking for a major victory. However, that is just me, and I turn out to be playing the soviets.  The problem that the soviets have is that their forces in initial contact are the weaker units, and that there is no obvious line of communication between the eastern forces and the southern rifle regiment and reinforcements. Thus, it is important not to engage the enemy early in the game and be destroyed piece by piece. The overall plan is to make a show of force to the enemy early on in the Slabada hills area and concentrate as quickly as possible in the south. If I can get him to dismount his m/c recon in my LOS then the motorcycles themselves become easy points and he may end up shifting more forces to the northern focus. The Game Turns Turn 1 recv 3/21/2005 sent 3/27/2005 Turn 2 recv 3/29/2005 sent 3/31/2005 Turn 3 recv 4/4/2005 sent 4/5/2005 Turn 4 recv 4/9/2005 sent 4/9/2005 Turn 5 recv 4/16/2005 sent 4/18/2005 Turn 6 recv 4/19/2005 sent 4/20/2005 Turn 7 recv 4/23/2005 sent 4/23/2005 Turn 8 recv 4/26/2005 sent 4/26/2005 Turn 9 recv 4/29/2005 sent 4/30/2005 Turn 10 recv 5/5/2005 sent 5/5/2005 avg (not incl. T1) 3.7 days .7 day VP Trend Chart Conclusion (warning: spoiler, do not read if you do not want to know the result) This game hinged on the decision on turn 1 to send the bulk of the eastern force SW to relieve Arikamiai as fast as possible. Had the axis managed to reach the bottleneck on the road SE from Arikamiai then it seems that the situation would have been very tough for the soviet reinforcements to make it through to take back the town. As it turned out, even though the initial axis assault on the original defenders of Arikamiai was very successful, they were unable or disinclined, to continue the push through to the bottleneck. Perhaps the early display of BT-7s in the south was a sufficient deterrent. perhaps the axis plan called for a halt after taking the town. Whatever the reason, the lull after the initial assault allowed the soviets to muster to the SE of Arikamiai out of LOS and then launch a devastating assault once all their reinforcements had arrived. The soviets were also aided by the choice of the axis player to mount "forward" defensive positions when defending Arikamiai. SUch defences expose the outer crust of the defence to LOS and thus enemy direct fire and spotted artillery bombardment. Furthermore, when the single units in this crust are disrupted they can by overrun with units with plenty of APs that can then probe the second line of the defence without exposing themselvevs to opfire. Once this recon is complete the attacker can then plot the most advantageous assault route through the defenders position. This tactic was most apparent in turn 10 when the entire defence of Arikamiai was rolled up in one turn.